Police on lookout for nighttime beach sleepers, trespassers

September 1, 2012|By Juan Ortega, Sun Sentinel

Authorities have a safety message for holiday revelers this beach-friendly Labor Day weekend: The beach-bum lifestyle is welcome in South Florida — but not nighttime trespassing or sleeping on public beaches.

The homeless, as well as residents and tourists, are being found by law enforcement agencies along some darkened stretches of beach in Broward and Palm Beach counties during overnight hours, when people are prohibited from being there.

In recent weeks, Fort Lauderdale police have conducted predawn sweeps, making at least 17 arrests under a city ordinance that bans sleeping on public beaches between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., court records show.

It also is a problem in the Town of Palm Beach, where officers routinely canvass beaches for nighttime trespassers, a police spokesman said. Officers issue trespassing warnings, but still typically arrest about three beach trespassers each month on unrelated charges, said Fred Hess, spokesman for the Palm Beach Police Department.

"It's virtually an every-night occurrence that people are on the beach after hours, for the most part looking at the beach or kissing," Hess said. "It's not infrequent that we find people smoking marijuana or drinking."

Also among those taken into custody were eight men and a woman who had their addresses listed as "at large," or homeless, the reports show. The arrests all happened about 5 a.m.

On the beach near The Gallery at Beach Place shopping mall, one homeless man tried to run away from police after waking up on a beach lounge chair and seeing police arresting another man nearby, police said. He looked in all directions for a way out, but when he realized "there was no escape, he surrendered," the report said.

In Palm Beach, officers check trespassers' identification to ensure they're not in trouble with the law. "We don't arrest people for simply being on the beach," Hess said. "But if we find something else, such as drugs or a warrant, we're going to proceed with an arrest."

"We have found runaways, including a 16-year-old who had been reported missing," he said.

Some South Floridians and tourists who occupy the sand late at night wrongly assume that because the beach is public property, "they're entitled to be on it 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Hess said.

On the contrary, most, if not all, beachside communities prohibit sleeping or trespassing on public beaches in the night hours — generally from dusk to dawn — over safety, health and tourism concerns. Under Florida law, each city ordinance against nighttime beach sleeping or trespassing is a third-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail.

Sean Cononie, founder of the COSAC Foundation that publishes the Homeless Voice, said he doesn't think arresting homeless people for sleeping on the beach is a good approach.

"There has to be an alternative to an arrest," he said. "All that does is make the homeless person more unemployable, because an employer now sees an arrest record."

Detective DeAnna Garcia, spokeswoman for Fort Lauderdale police, said the beach is no different than other public places overseen by the city. "All of our rules that regulate the parks in the city are also for the beach, because they consider the beach a park," she said.

Police say beachgoers sleeping on the sand at night put themselves at risk of harm from criminals and the elements. On some mornings, lifeguards have found people in nightclub attire who, instead of hailing a cab home, did some snoozing on the sand.

"It's not safe. There is wind, and waves are crashing," Hess said.

In the daytime, people screaming for help are more likely to get assistance, he said. But "at night, somebody could be getting in trouble in the water or having some crime committed on them — and nobody would hear them if they were calling for help."

Preserving tourism dollars is another reason for city beach ordinances.

Fort Lauderdale's law, enacted in 1953, states that allowing people "to sleep upon the city's beaches during nighttime hours will negatively affect the appearance of the city's beaches" and "will have a deleterious effect upon the city's tourism industry." It says that because the city is significantly dependent on tourism, it must maintain "attractive and inviting beaches."

Bans on beach sleeping at night also are enforced in municipalities such as Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Pompano Beach and Dania Beach, where sheriff's deputies use ATVs and a golf cart for patrols, a Broward sheriff's spokeswoman said.

Not all law enforcement agencies face frequent trespassing at night on beaches.

It seldom happens in Lake Worth, but "if we do come across anybody, we take them to a homeless shelter," said Teri Barbera, spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. "If they refuse, then we would arrest under the ordinance."

On a recent Friday morning, Broward County Judge John "Jay" Hurley had so many beach-sleeping suspects that he had them line up in groups of four as they appeared before him via a jailhouse-courtroom video link. One by one, the judge gave suspects a chance to resolve their cases that day.

When four men pleaded no contest, Hurley told them the rules for when they are freed from jail.

"All right, all of you agree you're not allowed to sleep on the beach in Fort Lauderdale?"